EB and Glacier fire?

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I decided it was too risky to take the 7(20) considering the time-sensitive nature of my trip. I'm sure glad I stumbled onto this forum and thread as I would have had no idea of the fires. Took the eVoucher and booked a non-stop itinerary on Delta instead for only $303, not bad for short notice. It's a bummer I'll be missing the train journey but I'll use my eVoucher in the spring or so. At least I get a 767 on my way back to MSP (now if only I can get a window seat).

Thanks again for the heads up.
 
Goodness. We're on 28(31) from Portland to Minot the week after next. This is on the home stretch of a Halifax-Quebec City-Montreal-Schenectady-Chicago-Kansas City-LA-Portland-Minot-St. Paul odyssey. I'd hate to get stranded in Portland, but of course my possible inconvenience nothing compared to what the people in Montana are suffering. I'll just live in hope.
 
Now over 100 active fires in Montana. I am sure the IWI people and the firefighters will do everything they can to save the place. The nearest fire is less than 2 miles away now. When this is all over I am afraid that area may look different than it did before the fires. The cabins and cabooses across from the tracks may not be as fortunate, as they are all located in heavy timber. My BNSF contacts say BNSF is mobilizing a lot of people and equipment to try to keep the line from being significantly damaged. Aside from the snow sheds and the wooden trestle there is a fairly high potential of having literally hundreds of large trees topple down onto the track beds as the fire passes thru.

Keep the rain dances going and let's hope for some relief--soon!

andersone said:
i hope they can rescue the treasure of the Walton if need be,,,,, that place is just COOL,,,,,,,
Click to expand...
 
As I recall the Inn and the BNSF yard office are pretty defensible. With lots of water available from the fire train they should be able to make a stand and those buildings should be OK. The metal cabooses might do OK if they can safely get water on them when the flame front hits. Hopefully they are prepping them by cutting all brush near them. The wood caboose is iffy as are the cabins, and the rest of the village has a LOT of trees so they will have major problems if this turns into a crown fire. The other good things are that the village is steeply down hill from the forest side, and any fire front should move slower from that direction as fires tend to try to spread uphill.
 
7/27(19) will not be allowed past Shelby,MT. Our first trip to Glacier in 18 years and we may never make it.
 
Is the train holding at Shelby indefinitely or is it cancelled with buses coming in? I'm wondering what happened to anyone heading to Seattle. I really dodged a bullet here. I wonder how far 7(20) will operate.
 
They've found some busses but not enough for everyone. Those of us going to E Glacier are ok, as are the Seattle/Spokane crowd. They need 1 more bus for the other people heading between those two spots. This is turning into quite the adventure/roller coaster of a day...
 
At least Shelby is on I-15 so the longer-distance buses can just take 15 and 90. I imagine people headed to West Glacier, Whitefish, and Libby (not to mention Essex) have it the hardest.
 
This might be repeatitive, but I just saw this posted in a FB group. This is from BNSF directly:

BNSF08202015.jpg
 
If the trestle burns (which we hope BNSF is successful in defending) it will be more than just a long summer. While there is some rain in the forecast, lightning is also part of the equation, then back to hot and dry weather for at least 4-5 days thereafter. We just cannot catch a break this summer.
 
I'm looking at Amtrak Status Maps, and am confused by what I see.

Train 7(19), which was stopped at Shelby last night, now picks up at Ephrata, Washington at 6:26 a.m. Did the poor passengers on that train get bussed between Shelby and Spokane, and then put on the consist for 8(20)? That train is shown as a disruption after Ephrata.

Ouch! I'd be pretty unhappy about an overnight, 400+ mile bustitution, even though it certainly isn't Amtrak's fault.

I notice that Amtrak will still selling me a ticket to travel tonight between St. Paul and Seattle, and 7(20) is still heading west.
 
It is a bus bridge between Spokane and Shelby (400+ miles, about 8 hours). Since the bus is about 80 minutes faster than the EB, they can try to keep the EB close to being on-time.
 
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I am wondering how they are getting across the Continental divide, since US 2 is now closed due to the numerous fires, leaving the only route to travel I-15 South to I-90 West-that is a long way out of the way! There are other smaller fires which may cause issues as well close to I-90. The smoke is so thick in the Flathead Valley the air is now unhealthy and it is difficult to breathe at times. We have lived here a long time and have never seen it this bad. During midday yesterday even though there were no clouds the smoke obscured the sun to the point that all we saw was a very dark red "spot" in the sky. At noon it looked like early evening.

BNSF has definitely shut normal operations down along the entire stretch from about Shelby to Spokane. They have positioned a large contingent of fire fighters and water tankers in Essex. Evacuation notices have been given, since the first fire threatening Essex was 1/4 of a mile from the Izaak Walton Inn as of about 9 AM this morning. With winds expected to reach almost 40 mph this PM, with little rainfall expected (the local weather guessers said we might see up to a tenth of an inch of rain) things are looking grim. Over 70 fires just in Flathead County now!
 
Mike, many of us here in Oregon are in the same situation, and I can sympathize mightily. I have never seen it like this, nor in every northwest state from northern CA to Montana at the very same time! And the worst part of it is, I see no end to years like this.
 
According to some of our native American historians and the Forest Service people in Western MT there have indeed been times when our area suffered droughts for up to 10 years at a time. The 500 year old Cedar Trees in the park have clearly shown that fact (with relatively minor dry spell in the 1930's and several big ones in the 1700 and 1800's), so perhaps we are indeed on the cusp of another dry period. Bummer.

I was communicating with USFS people locally today and they say "containment" of these many, many fires really will not happen until we get a major shot of precipitation, which may not occur until mid to late October at the earliest. They are so overwhelmed with the number of fires that there is no chance that they can be all addressed without Mother Nature's help. My BNSF contact told me this AM that they were told the service interruption on this portion of their route structure could be a long one and that BNSF has already shifted freight travel to reflect this. He said it could be a while before we see freight trains going thru Whitefish again. He would not give me any thoughts as to whether they meant days or weeks. My guess is BNSF is not going to take any chances with multi-million dollar trains and cargo as long as active fires are all over western MT and so close to their tracks. I counted well over a dozen active fires that either are currently or could soon effect their tracks just in NW MT.
 
Looking at the published pictures, I can't imagine how you would establish a fire line in that kind of terrain. I'm so sorry for you, Mike, and everyone else in the fiery West. For once winter can't come fast enough.
 
Yes, that is indeed an alternative, especially in good weather. But the smoke is so thick in parts of this route it is like driving in dense fog (Roger's Pass can be really slow when this happens). MT 200 is also close to several fires and while it is open now may be subject to closure or at least slowdowns due to fire fighting efforts in the coming weeks. We just drove the stretch between US 93 and I-90 days ago and several fires can be seen fairly close to the highway and the smoke is very thick. It may not be long before the only alternative is I-15 to I-90, and even that route may be in jeopardy around Lookout Pass at some point--there are THAT many fires around here. And to just make our day today the vigorous cold front making its way thru here has a broken line of mostly dry T-storms that are showing dozens of lightning strikes but no measurable rainfall as the front moves into far northern MT this PM.

PS: US 2 is now closed at West Glacier and East Glacier, except for fire emergency personnel and a few residents. In addition to the fire that is now burning very close to Essex, two other fires are now threatening the Marias Pass area and are expected to reach US 2 (and thus the BNSF tracks) within the coming week, especially given the forecast.
 
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